A New Chrome Extension Allows Chromebooks To Run Linux

byChrome BlogonJanuary 3, 2015

Francois Beaufort, the former Chrome hacker, has recently disclosed in his post on Google+ that the Chromebooks are now capable of running Linux. In order to run the Linux distribution, the users need to enable the developer mode and then use an extension for Chrome, called Crouton.

Google’s ChromeOS, designed for the Chromebooks is not a full-fledged operating system like OS X, Linux distributions, or Windows for that matter. However, Google has incorporated numerous handy features to ChromeOS in the past few months. Now, Chromebooks can allow the users to run few Android applications and it even supports video playback without Internet.

People have now found numerous ways of overcoming the issue of making the Intel-powered Chromebook computers run Linux along with the ChromeOS on dual-boot. Running Linux on Chromebooks was not possible without the series of codes and technical snags. As mentioned by Beaufort in his post, a long patch has been recently added to the ChromeOS to achieve this functionality.

You can install Crouton Integration extension only if the Developer Mode is enabled on your Chromebook. You may download the extension from Chrome webstore and install it by typing the command sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton t unity,extension on the shell. Although it’s not necessary, you’re better off having knowledge of the command line and Linux tools in case problems arise.

1. When starting Ubuntu from the terminal sudo startkde for example, add -b at the end. This will terminate the terminal and make restarting easier

sudo startkde -b

2. Download Crouton Integration from the Chrome store. This allows Ubuntu to be placed in a tabbed window on the Chrome desktop. Switching between the two systems is done by simply clicking on an icon on the task bar.

3. After adding the Crouton Integration extension, reinstall Ubuntu by adding the word extension after the desktop environment chosen

sudo sh ~/Downloads/crouton -t kde,xiwi,extension

4. Start Ubuntu from the terminal in the normal way

sudo startkde -b

Ubuntu will now appear in a tabbed window and the two operating systems may be run simultaneously in tabbed windows. I found that if my Chrome screen zoom was greater than 100% I only got a black window until the screen zoom was set to 100%﻿

Ubuntu will now appear in a tabbed window and the two operating systems may be run simultaneously in tabbed windows. I found that if my Chrome screen zoom was greater than 100% I only got a black window until the screen zoom was set to 100%﻿